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Pictured from left to right: Baldwin Village President Lance Van Damme, WWH CEO Eilidh Pederson and Kwik Trip Vice President Real Estate Scott Teigen stand for a picture on the old WWH site on 10th Avenue last week which was sold to Kwik Trip.

Pictured from left to right: Baldwin Village President Lance Van Damme, WWH CEO Eilidh Pederson and Kwik Trip Vice President Real Estate Scott Teigen stand for a picture on the old WWH site on 10th Avenue last week which was sold to Kwik Trip.

The old Western Wisconsin Health (WWH) site on 10th Avenue has sat vacant for six years since it moved to its current location on Bergslien Street. 

The future of the site has been heavily discussed since with no real answers until last week: The property has been sold to Kwik Trip. 

“This is a win, win, win” said WWH CEO Eilidh Pederson. “Our hospital is consistently full. Patients who require admission are seeking needed medical care within their hometown Hospital and as a result, there are days, where we faced challenges with having enough beds to meet the needs of our patients.” She added WWH will use the funds from the sale to add hospital beds to its inpatient department, including medical, surgical, and birthing center beds.

Explained Scott Teigen, Vice President Real Estate for Kwik Trip: “This works for us because it gets us away from the other store (off of 94). The Main Street store was too small. Baldwin deserves something better.” 

The final win pertains to the Village. As part of the agreement, Kwik Trip is donating its current building on Main Street, which will then become the new home of the Food Pantry upon completion of the new store. 

Finding a permanent home for the Food Pantry has been a desired goal for the Village Board members. The Food Pantry is temporarily located at Gethsemane Lutheran Church as a drive-in/curbside pick-up location after being behind the EMS building where they constantly ran into space issues. 

The Village looked into the old Homestead Vet building on Hwy. 63, but those plans fell through. 

The pantry, which is available on Wednesdays and Sunday afternoons saw 123 client visits last month, down from May’s totals by four. The 123 visits were split between one client visits or multiple services. 

“It has become clear that WWH’s top priority is expanding our hospital, to not only meet the needs of our patients, our community, but also a solution for the region,” Pederson continued. Capacity problems have plagued hospitals across the country, with hospitals struggling to have space to meet the demands of sick patients, she added. “Adding hospital beds for patients’ post-surgery, for surgery and medical care and pregnant patients is essential,” she concluded. Construction is projected to start next year on the expansion. 

In addition, WWH will further use the funds from the sale to expand its geothermal unit, further reducing WWH’s reliance on fossil fuels.  WWH noted Kwik Trip was inspired by WWH’s value of ecological sustainability and in response, will be establishing equipment and initiatives. 

Teigen said the new Kwik Trip store, a 9,000-square-foot version, called Gen 3, will be open to the public in 2024. It will include a car wash and be like the newest store which opened in River Falls at 1536 Cemetery Road. 

Food Pantry representative Claire Stein said it will be nice for clients to be able to come in and select their own food instead of delivering curbside. As for when that will occur that is yet to be determined. 

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